“French Minimalist Abstraction: Buren, Barré, Morellet & Toroni”, Katie Stout – New Works, Sayar & Garibeh – New Works

Starting in the 1950's, a group of French conceptual artists began to question and examine the very basis of art and the role of the artist in the production of art and in society. They variously coalesced into often short-lived groups under the monikers BPMT and GRAV, among others.

Throughout his career, Daniel Buren has pushed the boundaries of painting. Starting in the mid-1960's, he developed a form of conceptual art that employed an economy of means using a system of standardized vertical stripes. What Buren referred to as a "degree zero of painting".

Like Buren, Martin Barré spent a lifetime exploring the possibilities and limitations of painting. He also employed his own system-based compositional methods in the creation of his artworks. "Seriality is the means of producing them," he said. "It is not so much the paintings that make the series as the series that produce the paintings." In 1963, inspired by graffiti he'd seen in the Paris Métro, he began a series of now-famous spray paintings on canvas, which form the basis of the current show. This groundbreaking approach both presaged and influenced some of the most innovative painting of the last century.

Easily one of the towering figures of post-war French conceptual abstraction is the painter and sculptor, Francois Morellet. A pioneer of conceptual art, but, as the curator, Beatrice Gross explained in her major Morellet retrospective at the Dia Art Foundation in New York in 2017, "of a Dadaist kind. He developed an approach that was both very ambitious in redefining geometric abstraction, but also brought a certain sense of humor to it [-] a certain levity".

Also like his French conceptual brethren, he employed a systems-based approach, one often based on mathematical equations and constructs. Systems he said that are "as rigorous as they are absurd."

Lastly, the Swiss-born artist, Neile Toroni, who since, the 1960's has utilized a method also considered radical in its approach and as famous as it is unvarying. Using only a no 50 paintbrush, the artist makes a mark at rigid 30cm intervals. Like all the artists in the show, he is attempting to free painting from authorship. Along with the later work of Barré, in Toroni's paintings, the gesture however is essential. July 20 - November 1, 2024.

Sayar & Garibeh - New Works
Working in hand-hammered Lebanese limestone and raffia, the Beirut based, Lebanese duo have created a series of new sculptural works primarily for outdoor use. Evocative sculptural shapes define unique seating and lighting pieces. Summer 2024

Katie Stout - New Works
The show consists of a series of new ceramic pieces evoking the artist's characteristic use of sly humor and subversive wit. Fruit and vegetables become wiling participants in Katie's unique artistic expression. Summer 2024.